1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable hamper and specifically to a portable hamper with a foot pedal actuated cover.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present invention has particular utility for use in hospitals and nursing homes and is used as a portable hamper for the storage, movement and ultimate disposition of various types of waste material. Hampers that are used in hospitals and nursing homes must in general be portable, easy to clean and use and must be versitile so as to be useful for the storage of a variety of different types of waste material.
As an example, portable hampers must be capable of being used for materials such as soiled linen, trash, infectious linen, infectious surgical supplies, diapers and other types of waste which must be collected from a particular location and then transported to areas for either disposal or renewal. It is desirable that the hampers are normally covered except when the material is being put into the hamper bag. Prior art hampers have been used to provide for the above collection, movement and disposition and one such prior art hamper is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,354,543 issued Oct. 19, 1982 and listing Paul Bogner as the inventor.
The prior art patent listed above discloses a portable hamper having a hamper frame to support a pliant hamper bag and with the hamper movable through the use of casters located at the bottom of the frame. A lower support tray is positioned to hold the frame sections open and with the lower tray also serving as a bottom support for the hamper bag and as a container to retain spare bags. The hamper frame includes upper cross members which serve as the supports on which the hamper bag is hung. A cover, large enough to cover the open bag, fits down around the upper end of the bag and encloses the upper end of the bag and the upper cross members of the frame. The cover may include spring clip fasteners which clip onto a cross member of the frame and allow the cover to be pivoted around the frame so as to expose the open end of the hamper bag to allow the bag to receive waste material.
In the prior art patent, the cover may be clipped to either one of the two cross members or to a third cross member located outside of the two cross members. In one embodiment of the prior art patent, the cover would automatically close each time the cover is opened due to a portion of the cover engaging a side of the bag. In a second embodiment of the prior art patent, the cover may be maintained in an open position. The two embodiments for the prior art patent allows the portable hamper of the prior art to be used in a variety of situations depending upon the clipping of the cover. However, with both of the prior art embodiments, the cover had to be opened by hand.
In the first prior art embodiment, the user of the hamper would open the cover with one hand and place the material in the bag with the other. The cover would contact the side of the bag so that the cover would automatically close, If the material to be placed in the bag had to be handled with both hands then the user of the hamper would have to position the cover to form the second prior art embodiment so that the cover would stay open. The user of the hamper would then open the cover and leave the cover in the open position and then use both hands to place the material in the open bag. Once the material has been placed in the open bag, the cover would then be closed by hand.
It can be seen therefore, that the prior art hamper although useful for a variety of situations also had a serious limitation in that the cover had to be opened by hand and that in certain situations, the cover might be left in the open position even though it would be desirable for the cover to automatically close.